JMU teaches future animators

by Drew Lepp, news editor

Someone has to create the special effects seen in movies such as “Star Wars” and “War of the Worlds,” or the animation for games like “Halo 2” and “Grand Theft Auto.” JMU computer animation students hope to be those people.

The computer animation program at JMU became the first program of its kind in Virginia when it started teaching interested students how to use major 3-D animation software in fall 1997.  Since then, the program has seen former students land jobs at studios such as Pixar, Metrolight Studios, Blizzard Entertainment and Square.

Associate professor Peter Ratner heads the computer animation program and said in the recent years, animation has changed drastically due to technological advances. “When I arrived at JMU in 1989, all we had in the art department were three computers that could barely do anything,” Ratner said. 

When he started the program in 1997, he said the computers were still equally incompetent. For example, a 640 x 480 pixel rendering took three days to complete. “Today, even our four-year-old outdated computers can render the same image in less than one minute,” he said.

Because of the technological changes, it has made it possible for Ratner to cover much more material in the same amount of time. “Ten years ago, computers could never have run the complicated software we are using now. Therefore, companies didn’t expect as much from our graduates,” he said.

But times have changed. Since the program is so influenced by technology, in order to turn out well-prepared graduates, it is necessary to keep up with all the changes in animation software. Maya, the high-end animation software the computer animation program uses, has been releasing upgrades twice a year. This means having to learn all the new features each time a new version comes out. “If I don’t keep up with the changes, the program becomes irrelevant and students have a difficult time finding jobs after they graduate,” Ratner said.

Junior Andrew Butterfield has had an interest in animation for years and came to JMU specifically for the computer animation program. “I didn’t know it’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life until I took a multimedia class sophomore year in high school,” he said. “I had actually met with the head of the department before applying. He explained the program to me and it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Senior Tim Hogan found the animation program so appealing that he transferred to JMU from Virginia Tech. His dream job is to work at Pixar. “Me and every other animation student in this country,” he said.

Both Butterfield and Hogan explained that 3D animation is very similar to sculpting. Hogan said in order to create an animation using the program Maya, you start with a lump of polygons that you mold into a person, animals, houses, trees, cars or monsters. After the basic form is created, you then bind your object to a basic skeleton that you can use to move your object around. From then, the creator can add voices, a soundtrack and a realistic backdrop to create a final animation.

This process takes a long time. “Our senior animation is basically two semesters of work to create three minutes of final animation. It’s crazy, but worth it,” Hogan said.